Hip Hop Subculture

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The hip-hop subculture is a worldwide influence. The majority of its audience is non-black (75%) and it’s the most popular genre of music in the U.S.

History of the Hip-hop Subculture:

“Hip-hop” grew in awareness and popularity by being played at house parties, basement parties, and on the streets of New York. Busy Bee Starski, DJ Hollywood and DJ Afrika Bambaataa are known for fabricating the term "hip-hop". In 1979, hip hop rose in awareness through the production of Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight." This was the first enormously successful hip-hop song. As hip-hop began to evolve, rap became a rhythmic form of expression for you against "the system" (the police). Subsequently, this prompted the music and film industry to endorse rap. In 1985, Krush Groove was released. This movie depicted the life of rap music, earned $17 million and took rap to the next level: mainstream.

Language:The hip-hop subculture is bounded linguistically, meaning that someone of a different subculture or ethnicity can understand the language used amongst individuals in the hip-hop subculture. Hip hoppers use words like: da bomb, dope, and legit as adjectives to describe something in a positive connotation. A very common word used in the hip-hop subculture is the word "nigga". This word was once received in a negative connotation; however, individuals of the hip-hop subculture managed to reverse the meaning. Now, the word is used as a term of endearment.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Snapback hats.

Symbols:

Expensive sneakers.

Baggy pants.

Beliefs/Values

The hip-hop subculture is a universal culture that promotes diversity among its audience. There is a union of ethnicities in this subculture that allows kids from Detroit to relate to kids in Hong Kong through hip-hop music. The hip-hop subculture has a great influence among teens of all ethnicities. Teens are persuaded through the hip-hop music to rebel against their parents and the status quo (society's expectations). This rebellion derives from teens feeling empowered and feeding off of this censorship. Teens like that the status quo and parents seek to censor this culture and they feed off of this censorship because its viewed as wrong and defies social norms.Mainstream InfluencePromotion of the hip-hop subculture is prominent among various industries. Sitcoms like: Jamie Foxx, Fresh Prince and Martin endorse and promote this culture. Black humor used to appeal only to the black population; now, it's more widespread. Also, the hip-hop culture is promoted in movies. Movies that seek to depict urban street reality are successful in cutting through ethnic boundaries and uniting them.Remembering a hip-hop legendSixteen years ago, a very successful hip-hop artist, Tupac Shakur, was murdered. He contributed to the elevation and increase of hip-hop popularity. Read this article to find out how the hip-hop subculture is remembering him.

Read more: http://www.hiphoplead.com/news/today-we-remember-2pac-16th-anniversary-of-a-legend/ A hip-hop princess lives on“It’s hard to say what I want my legacy to be when I’m long gone.” This article shows how hip-hop princess Aaliyah's legacy lives on. In honor of her work in hip-hop and her life, a new album is being released.Read more: http://www.hiphoplead.com/news/aaliyahs-new-album/